Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get the opportunity to highlight the reckless spending by this Government. I have only two minutes, so unfortunately I will not be able to list all the reckless spending even in my constituency. I will concentrate on two projects. The first is Enable Ireland's school in Sandymount, which I have raised with the Minister before. For two years classrooms have been closed to the students in this Sandymount school because of a roof leak. I have raised it in the House on a number of occasions, as I said. It means students cannot get their mobility break and stretch and so are stuck in their wheelchairs all day. The cost of fixing this roof would not be a lot and would be far more beneficial to the students than phone pouches. There is spending of €9 million on phone pouches and €336,000 on a bike shelter while the most vulnerable of our students cannot get the roof fixed. This is outrageous and simply unfair.

The second case of reckless spending in my community is by the Office of Public Works. There is no surprise there. The OPW has got itself into a bizarre 20-year relationship with a group or charity called the Irish Children's Museum Limited. If you want an example of bizarre spending, this is it. This Irish Children's Museum Limited charity has been gifted offices in the National Concert Hall for the past eight years. The project is proceeding with no business plan and no knowledge of how much it is going to cost. There is no estimate at all. There is already a fine science centre, the Explorium, in Sandyford, just 10 km from here. This charity wants to destroy the Iveagh Gardens to deliver this project. It absolutely insane that a private charity, a vanity project, would be allowed destroy a jewel like the Iveagh Gardens. To give some figures, the OPW has spent €2.7 million on third-party costs. It has spent €2.5 million on management time since 2017 to now, estimated in submissions to Dublin City Council. Half a million euro has been spent in legal fees estimated for arbitration. That is €7.7 million spent by the OPW on this vanity project for a private charity, and not a shovel in the ground. Estimated costs have gone up to €70 million and that figure is climbing day by day. It is absolutely bizarre and more bizarre that the Fine Gael Lord Mayor of Dublin backs this project.

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